- Often the vehicles are not actually ‘out of charge’ but are low on charge
It’s a big worry for a lot of apprehensive EV owners – that they’ll run out of charge and breakdown by the side of the road.
But new data from the AA shows range anxiety should be already be considered a thing of the past.
That’s because the latest callout statistics show that ‘out of charge’ breakdowns as a percentage of all EV breakdowns are at a record low in 2024 – just 1.85 per cent.
In 2023, the average flat-battery EV breakdowns accounted for 2.26 per cent of callouts.
Yet last year an AA survey of 14,500 drivers found that a staggering 99 per cent incorrectly estimated how often EV owners are left stranded at the roadside.
This proves that while range anxiety is something 43 per cent of EV drivers worry about, the reality is that barely any electric car owners experience it today.
The AA deals with approximately 8,000 breakdowns a day across all vehicle categories.
But the roadside assistance provider says it only deals with five or six out of charge vehicles per day.
Often the vehicles are not actually ‘out of charge’ but are low on charge, or not able to charge due to technical problems, leaving the driver worried about getting to the next charger.
And the AA’s data also shows that 30 per cent of breakdown faults for EVs are almost identical to petrol and diesel cars.
These tend to be caused by issues relating to tyres, wheels and the 12V battery.
Despite blips in 2017 to 2019, the proportion of ‘out of charge’ EVs has dropped since 2015, when breakdowns due to empty batteries were at 8.26 per cent.
Over the years, new battery technology, improved charging performance and reliability, as well as a growth in public EV charging network have all helped drag low-battery related breakdowns to below 2 per cent of all roadside callouts.
Better education, in the form of increased driver and dealer knowledge, is another reason.
Ultimately, The AA expects the figures to drop to 1 per cent. This would match the proportion of conventional combustion-engine cars running out of petrol or diesel.
